Close to Finishing King’s Monster
I’ve mentioned King’s Monster (working title) a few times here, but I haven’t talked much about it. I’m now — I deeply, sincerely hope — about two and a half chapters away from its end, so I thought I’d discuss it a little.
KM is a dark political fantasy that I’ve been working on for quite a few years, and it’s been completed, torn apart, and rewritten several times. I think it’s finally where it needs to be, so this ought to be the last rewrite, although it’ll go through a few more sweeps to be tightened and polished. Essentially, King’s Monster is about three characters struggling to bring order back to the capital of a country that’s experiencing a violent revolution.
My viewpoint characters are Corbin Rook, the precise and orderly city executioner whose family has served in the capacity for seven generations and who can’t imagine another life for himself; Lord Constantin Lescaut, the former lord chamberlain whose retiring nature must change if he’s going to bring stability back to his beloved realm; and Laile Keen, the young Church acolyte who is fighting to prove herself more than just a criminal’s daughter but whose prelate assigns her to bodyguard the very man who hanged her father ten years ago. The image above is the photo I posted on my whiteboard to represent Corbin. It’s Kenneth Branagh looking sharp as Hamlet, but his formal uniform and expression of disapproval is perfect for Corbin, who believes that killing should be a neat, quiet, professional undertaking, not an evening’s lark for an unruly mob….
Over the course of my rewrites it’s become clear that the novel’s central theme is one of duty: how do you do your duty when everything you believed about people and politics is being shaken? What’s your duty when the mob demands that innocent people be put to death — at their hands or yours? What’s your duty when a weak government is being violently overthrown and what’s replacing it seems even worse? Each of the characters needs to redefine him/herself to cope with the chaos while retaining a sense of self-worth.
Clockwork Heart readers will see some similarities between the two — KM is also city-centered and includes political violence, intrigue, and villains who aren’t purely evil so much as just well down that infamous road paved with good intentions. However, while Clockwork Heart is mostly romantic mystery, King’s Monster is more fantasy thriller, stained crimson with bloody executions, riots on the streets, autopsies in stinking morgues, magic that ravages the body like cancer, intrigue, betrayal, and death.
And while Clockwork Heart was more steampunk than fantasy, King’s Monster is fairly traditional low fantasy, with people swinging swords and mages using magic — albeit a rather limited, suicidal form of magic — and not a difference engine or airgun in sight. But neither will you find any elves or dwarves. I don’t write that kind of fantasy, either.
I’m pretty excited about getting this draft finished. I’ve been working on KM for so long and had so many false starts and dead ends with it that finishing this rewrite will feel like a major milestone in my life. I love the story and the characters, which is why I’ve persevered so long despite so many challenges, and my goal is to get it completely finished and out to agents by the end of this year. However, I’m off to Australia this Sunday for a week, and although I always assume I’ll get lots of writing done in hotels while I travel, experience has shown that what usually happens is I get too caught up in new experiences to concentrate. But I can always hope.
And for you folks wondering about a Clockwork Heart sequel? I have a few notes on my whiteboard, under my KM notes. Once these last chapters of KM are done, I’ll get serious about my outlining. I think I’m going to be in the mood for something a little more cheerful after finishing King’s Monster!
drupagliassotti @ June 26, 2008